Skip to main content

Boys on Film

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys
  • 1030 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter examines the most common reason given by respondents for enjoying m/m pornography—that they find men, and particularly the spectacle of two men having sex, attractive. Many respondents state they enjoy m/m porn because it is marketed to a target audience they feel they have more in common with (gay men as opposed to heterosexual men), and invites them to adopt a point of view that is more in-keeping with their own sexual preferences and desires where ‘men are the objects of sexual attraction, instead of the women’ (American, 25–34, single, heterosexual). To this extent, several of the themes that emerged from the analysis as to why female respondents enjoy watching m/m pornography can be situated within some of the wider literature concerning the notions of the ‘gaze’ and the existence (or not) of a ‘female gaze’.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Vidding refers to the practice in media fandom of creating videos (very often set to music) from the footage of one or more visual media sources, thereby exploring the source itself in a new way—within slash fandoms vidding often retools scenes or images from the original media source(s) to focus on the romantic and/or sexual tension between two (or more) male characters.

References

  • Attwood, F. (2005). Tits and ass and porn and fighting’: Male heterosexuality in magazines for men. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 8(1), 83–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beggan, J. T., & Allison, S. T. (2009). Viva Viva? Women’s meanings associated with male nudity in a 1970s ‘For Women’ magazine. The Journal of Sex Research, 46(5), 446–459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger, J. (1973). Ways of seeing. New York: Viking Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Betterton, R. (1987). Looking on: Images of femininity in the visual arts and media. London: Pandora.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bordo, S. (1993). Reading the male body. Michigan Quarterly Review, 32(4), 696–737.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bordo, S. (2000). The male body: A new look at men in public and private. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, K. (2013, August 1). James Deen on The Canyons, social anxiety, and Sasha Grey. Vulture. Retrieved from http://www.vulture.com/2013/08/james-deen-the-canyons-fifty-shades-sasha-grey.html

  • Butler, J. (1990). The force of fantasy: Feminism, Mapplethorpe, and discursive excess. Differences, 2(2), 105–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Califa, P. (1994). Public sex: The culture of radical sex. Pittsburgh: Cleis Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Catalina, M. (2011, March 22). Porn, made for women by women. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/22/porn-women

  • Coad, D. (2008). The metrosexual: Gender, sexuality, and sport. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coppa, F. (2008). Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding. Transformative Works and Culture, 1. Retrieved from http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/44/64?__hstc=65709233.99ed162120c7e894e9a96b328d8ca5e0.1436918400093.1436918400094.1436918400095.1&__hssc=65709233.1.1436918400096&__hsfp=1314462730

  • Coward, R. (1984). Female desire. London: Paladin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M. D. (1991). The male nude in contemporary photography. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Lauretis, T. (1984). Alice doesn’t: Feminism, semiotics, cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • de Lauretis, T. (1994). The practice of love: Lesbian sexuality and perverse desire. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dhaenens, F., Vam Bauwel, S., & Biltereyst, D. (2008). Slashing the fiction of Queer Theory: Slash fiction, Queer reading, and transgressing the boundaries of screen studies, representations, and audiences. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 32(4), 335–347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Disch, L., & Kane, M. J. (1996). When the looker really is a bitch: Lisa Olson, sport, and the heterosexual matrix. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 21, 278–308.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doane, M. A. (1987). The desire to desire: The woman’s film of the 1940s. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dworkin, A. (1992). Against the male flood: Censorship, pornography, and equality. In C. Itzin (Ed.), Pornography: Women, violence, and civil liberties (pp. 515–535). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eck, B. A. (2003). Men are much harder: Gendered viewing of nude images. Gender & Society, 17(5), 691–710.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, K., O’Dair, B., & Tallmer, A. (1990). Feminism and pornography. Feminist Review, 36, 15–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, D. J., & Tewksbury, R. (2000). The ‘gentlemen’ in the club: A typology of strip club patrons. Deviant Behaviour, 21(3), 271–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, C., & Gamman, L. (1995). The gaze revisited, or reviewing Queer viewing. In P. Burston & C. Richardsonm (Eds.), Queer romance: Lesbians, gay men, and popular culture (pp. 13–56). London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fielding, D. M. (2013). Normalising the deviance: The creation, politics, and consumption of sexual orientation and gender identities in fan communities. BA Thesis submitted to Hamline University. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.hamline.edu/dhp/7/

  • Foucault, M. (1963/2003). The birth of the clinic (A. M. Sheridan, Trans.). New York and London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gee, C. (2016, May 23). Game of Thrones finally showed a penis—But it was a cop out. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/05/23/game-of-thrones-finally-showed-a-penis--but-it-was-a-cop-out/

  • Gill, R. (2007). Gender and the media. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gill, R. (2009). Supersexualise me! Advertising and the ‘midriffs’. In F. Attwood (Ed.), Mainstreaming sex: The sexualisation of Western culture (pp. 93–109). London: IB Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goddard, K. (2000). ‘Looks maketh the man’: The female gaze and the construction of masculinity. The Journal of Men’s Studies, 9(1), 23–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greer, G. (2003). The beautiful boy. London: Thames & Hudson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greven, D. (2009). Gender and sexuality in Star Trek: Allegories of desire in the television series and films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halberstam, J. (1995). Skin shows: Gothic horror and the technology of monsters. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hooton, C. (2016, May 24). Game of Thrones finally took Emilia Clarke’s advice and ‘freed the penis’. The Independent. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/game-of-thrones-nude-scene-freed-the-penis-in-season-6-episode-5-s6e5-nsfw-a7042826.html

  • Janssen, E., Carpenter, D., & Graham, C. A. (2003). Selecting films for sex research: Gender differences in erotic film preference. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 32, 243–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, E. A. (1983). Women and film: Both sides of the camera. New York: Methuen.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kent, S. (1985). The erotic male nude. In S. Kent & J. Morreau (Eds.), Women’s images of men (pp. 75–105). London: Pandora.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lacan, J. (1961/2011). The seminar of Jacques Lacan: Book IX: Identification: 1961–1962. Retrieved June 20, 2013, from http://esource.dbs.ie/bitstream/handle/10788/159/Book-09-Identification.pdf?sequence=1

  • Lehman, P. (1988). In the realm of the senses: Desire, power, and the representation of the male body. Genders, 2, 91–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lulu. (2013). AO3 census data analysis. Retrieved from http://centrumlumina.tumblr.com/post/63373124511/mm-fans-sexuality-and-gender

  • Lunsing, W. (2006). Yaoi Ronsō: Discussing depictions of male homosexuality in Japanese girls’ comics, gay comics and gay pornography. Intersections: Gender & Sexuality in Asia & the Pacific, 12, 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackinnon, K. (1997). Uneasy pleasures: The male as erotic object. London: Cygnus Arts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marks, L. U. (1996). Straight women, gay porn and the scene of erotic looking. Jump Cut, 40, 127–135.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGowan, T. (2008). The real gaze: Film theory after lacan. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLelland, M. (2005). The world of yaoi: The internet, censorship, and the global ‘Boys’ Love’ fandom. The Australian Feminist Law Journal, 23, 61–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McNair, B. (2013). Porno? Chic! London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mercer, J. (2013). The enigma of the male sex symbol. Celebrity Studies, 4(1), 81–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, U. (2010). Hidden in straight sight: Trans*gressing gender and sexuality via BL. In A. Levi, M. McHarry, & D. Pagliasotti (Eds.), Boys’ love manga (pp. 232–257). Jefferson: McFarland and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montemurro, B., Bloom, C., & Madell, K. (2003). Ladies night out: A typology of women patrons of a male strip club. Deviant Behaviour, 24(4), 333–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore, S. (1988). Here’s looking at you, kid. In L. Gamman & M. Marshment (Eds.), The female gaze: Women as viewers of popular culture. London: The Women’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrissey, K. (2008). Fanning the flames of romance: An exploration of fan fiction and the romance novel. MA dissertation, Georgetown University. Retrieved from https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/bitstream/handle/10822/551540/17_etd_kem82.pdf

  • Moye, A. (1985). Pornography. In A. Metcalf & M. Humphries (Eds.), The sexuality of men (pp. 44–69). London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulvey, L. (1975). Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen, 16(3), 6–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagaike, K. (2003). Perverse sexualities, perverse desires: Representations of female fantasises and yaoi manga as pornography directed at women. U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, 25, 76–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Naughty, Ms. (2013). My decadent decade: Ten years of making and debating porn for women. In T. Taormino, C. Parreṅas Shimizu, C. Penley, & M. Miller-Young (Eds.), The feminist porn book (pp. 71–78). New York: Feminist Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Naughty, Ms. (2016). Game of thrones: Three penises is not nudity equality. Ms Naughty’s Porn For Women Blog. Retrieved from http://msnaughty.com/blog/2016/05/24/game-of-thrones-three-penises-is-not-nudity-equality/

  • Neale, S. (1983). Masculinity as spectacle: Reflections of men and mainstream cinema. Screen, 24(6), 6–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neville, L. (2015). Male gays in the female gaze: Women who watch m/m pornography. Porn Studies, 2(2–3), 192–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pagliassotti, D. (2010). Better than romance? Japanese BL manga and the subgenre of male/male romantic fiction. In A. Levi, M. McHarry, & D. Pagliassotti (Eds.), Boys’ love manga: Essays on the sexual ambiguity and cross-cultural fandom of the genre (pp. 59–83). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parvez, Z. F. (2006). The labour of pleasure: How perceptions of emotional labour impact women’s enjoyment of pornography. Gender and Society, 20, 605–631.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramsay, G. (2017). Straight women seeing gay porn: ‘He’s too good looking!’. Porn Studies, 4(2), 157–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Randolph, A. W. B. (2002). Engaging symbols: Gender, politics, and public art in fifteenth-century florence. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed Hughes, K. Y., & Anderson, V. N. (2007). What turns women on? Black and White women’s sexual arousal. International Journal of Sexual Health, 19(2), 17–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rupp, H. A., & Wallen, K. (2009). Sex-specific content preferences for visual sexual stimuli. Archives of Sexual Behaviour, 38(3), 417–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russ, J. (1985). Magic mommas, trembling sisters, puritans and perverts: Feminist essays. Trumansburg, NY: Crossing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ryan, M. (2014). ‘Outlander’, the Wedding episode, and TV’s sexual revolution. Huffington Post, August 29, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/29/outlander-wedding_n_5896284.html

  • Sanders-McDonagh, E. (2015). Porn by any other name: Women’s consumption of public sex performances in Amsterdam. Porn Studies, 2(4), 329–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sassatelli, R. (2011). Interview with Laura Mulvey: Gender, gaze and technology in film culture. Theory, Culture & Society, 28(5), 123–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, G. (1989). The nude: A new perspective. Cambridge, UK: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder, K. M. (2000). The female voyeur and the possibility of a pornography for women: Redefining the gaze of desire. PhD dissertation, University of South Africa. Retrieved June 20, 2013, from http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/3079/Schroeder%20K%20M.pdf?sequence=1

  • Shaw, S. M. (1999). Men’s leisure and women’s lives: The impact of pornography on women. Leisure Studies, 18(3), 197–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, K. (1980). Masochism and subjectivity. Framework, 12, 2–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, K. (1992). Male subjectivity at the margins. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, W., & Gagon, J. H. (2005). Sexual conduct: The social sources of human sexuality (2nd ed.). New Brunswick, NJ: Aldine/Transaction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, C. (2007). One for the girls!: The pleasures and practices of reading women’s porn. Bristol: Intellect Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sonnet, E. (1999). ‘Erotic fiction by women for women’: The pleasures of post-feminist heterosexuality. Sexualities, 2(2), 167–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stacey, J. (1991). Feminine fascinations: Forms of identification in star-audience relations. In C. Gledhill (Ed.), Stardom: Industry of desire (pp. 141–163). New York: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Stanley, M. (2010). 101 uses for boys: Communing with the reader in yaoi and slash. In A. Levi, M. McHarry, & D. Pagliassotti (Eds.), Boys’ love manga: Essays on the sexual ambiguity and cross-cultural fandom of the genre (pp. 99–109). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stratton, J. (2000). The desirable body: Cultural fetishism and the erotics of consumption. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swidler, A. (1986). Culture in action: Symbols and strategies. American Sociological Review, 51(3), 273–286.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thurston, C. (1987). The romance revolution: Erotic novels for women and the quest for a new sexual identity. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tibbals, C. (2015). Exposure: A sociologist explores sex, society, and adult entertainment. Austin, TX: Greenleaf Book Group Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, K. [katiewardwriter]. (2016, Apr 13). The human gaze is an act of intimacy. It’s why we love it in art. It’s why we feel violated when photos are taken without our permission. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/katiewardwriter/status/720169023351177216

  • Waskul, D. D., & Radeloff, C. L. (2010). How do I rate?’: Web sites and gendered erotic looking glasses. In F. Attwood (Ed.), Porn.com (pp. 202–216). New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, L. (Ed.). (2004). Porn studies. London: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Z. (2007, July 25). The market beyond porn. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/jul/25/comment.television

  • Worton, M. (2002). Typical men: Recent photography of the male body by men. Nottingham: Djanogly Art Gallery.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Neville, L. (2018). Boys on Film. In: Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69134-3_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics